The use of production lines with long pipe or piping structures is common in many industries, such as the pharmaceutical industry, the chemical industry, the food industry, etc. These pipe structures are generally used to convey materials to or from a vessel, or to convey materials between two vessels. For instance, in the production of pharmaceutical dosage forms, such as tablets or capsules, the ingredients are processed or conveyed in different processing structures. One processing structure may be a granulation vessel, another processing structure may be a drying vessel, yet another processing structure may be a pipe for leading materials or substances from the granulation vessel to the drying vessel. Also a system of several processing vessels and/or pipes can be regarded as a processing structure.
In the production of pharmaceuticals it is desirable to reduce the risk of mixing materials from different batches or reduce the risk of leaving high-risk substances, such as high-potency drugs or chemically or microbiologically reactive materials, inside the processing structure. It is also desirable to detect any geometrical changes on the interior of the processing structure, such as damaged or disconnected portions of the processing structure, so that the personnel may take appropriate actions at an early stage. Apart from changes on the actual processing structure or its components, a geometrical change may also be a change in the amount of material inside the processing structure.
In the present situation, the manufacturing personnel have to gain access to the interior of the processing structure in order to perform manual cleanness tests or a damage check. In some cases such tests may be difficult to execute, e.g. depending on the dimensions of the processing structure, the location of the processing structure, or even the location to be cleaned or inspected inside the processing structure. Also, by not knowing whether or not the processing structure is free from material remains, or if other geometrical changes have occurred, the personnel will tend to check the processing structure more often than necessary, resulting in unnecessary time loss and additional production costs.
Thus, it would be desirable to detect any material remains from processes from different batches, or to detect other changes in the internal geometry of processing structures, in an easy and reliable manner. It would also be desirable to reduce possible time loss and production costs.